Laura Purdie Salas

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You are here: Home / Resources for Making a Living Writing Books for Kids

Resources for Making a Living Writing Books for Kids

Making a Living Writing Books for Kids[These are books, products, apps, and other tools mentioned in my book Make a Living Writing Books for Kids]

If you purchased or borrowed the book, I would so much appreciate an honest review on Amazon. That will help the book get seen by more people, who can then use the reviews to decide if the book might be right for them. Thank you!

Introduction

Laura’s website

Laura’s classes for writers

Laura’s books for writers

 

Section 1: Mindset

Kate Messner’s “Picture Book Math” post

Horn Book Magazine

Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s list of links to many annual awards

CYBILS

 

Martin Sheen episode of the On Being podcast

 

Section 2: Income Streams

 

Trade Books

Five Lessons from 100 Published Picture Book Authors (info on advances and agents)

Find an indie bookstore in your area

 

Nonfiction Books for the Educational Market

Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)

Educational Markets for Children’s Writers on Evelyn Christensen’s website

Writing for the Educational Market blog

BookJobs.com

Funds for Writers newsletters

FWJ: Freelance Writing Jobs

JournalismJobs.com

MediaBistro

Morning Coffee e-newsletter

National Council of Nonprofits

SunOasis

WritersWeekly.com

Monster

 

Assessment Passages

Pearson Assessments

DRC

HMH Assessments

 

Other Freelance Writing

Writer’s Digest Magazine and Books

Editorial Freelancers Association

National Writers Union

Professional Writers Association

 

“How To Make Your First $100 as a Freelance Writer”

“How To Launch Your Freelance Writing Career”

 

School Visits and Other Events for Kids

Certain-Dri Antiperspirant

Alexis O’Neill’s School Visit Experts website

Sample contracts

Toastmasters (A number of writer, educator, and business friends swear by it!)

 

Speaking to Educators

NCTE

ILA

ALA

 

Teaching or Critiquing Writers

Teachable – a platform for offering online courses

 

Editing

PEN (Professional Editors Network) is invaluable if you hope to have editing as one of your income streams.

EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association)

Book editor listings on Jane Friedman’s website and Joanna Penn’s website

 

Copyediting

Chicago Manual of Style online or in print

AP (Associated Press) Stylebook online or in print

PEN (Professional Editors Network) 

EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association)

 

SCBWI’s The Book

Section 3: Preparing for Your Career

Laura’s annual income reports  (2007-2018)

Microsoft Word

SCBWI’s The Book (free with SCBWI membership)

School Library Journal

The Horn Book

Book Links/Booklist

Kirkus

Horn Book Guide Online

Publishers Marketplace

 

Vistaprint

Here are some of my business cards (front above back) from over the years:

Moon
Water
Bookspeak
Leaf
Stampede

SlimTimer

Google Forms

Google Alerts

EasyBib

Section 4: 16 Habits for Success

CamScanner app

Horn Book Guide Online

Publishers Marketplace

SCBWI

PEN

NCTE

Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA, part of NCTE)

ILA

PayPal

Loft Literary Center

Jon Scieszka

Carbonite

Teachers Pay Teachers

Section 5: Organizing Your Business

MyLifeOrganized – the project management software I currently use

Snippet of submissions database

Snippet of submissions database

Sample Monthly Block

Sample Monthly Block

 

 

Section 6: Networking and Promotion

Here are just a few of examples of the promotional giveaways or conversation starters I’ve used (plus the companies where they were ordered from. There have been many notecards and rack cards ordered from Vistaprint, beautiful chocolate rocks ordered from Amazon, earrings and cookies made by Etsy artists, phone cases and laptop skins created by my husband through various companies…the possibilities are endless. Just make sure you have the artist’s permission to use book images on promotional materials.

WATER CAN BE... bookmark from Overnightprints (beaded pin added by me)
WATER CAN BE… bookmark from Overnightprints (beaded pin added by me)
IF YOU WERE THE MOON carf ordered from Mailpix
IF YOU WERE THE MOON carf ordered from Mailpix
A LEAF CAN BE... shirt ordered from Jakprints
A LEAF CAN BE… shirt ordered from Jakprints

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

SCBWI Regions (members only)

Feedly

Kidlitosphere Central

NCTE on Twitter

Facebook Ads

Amazon Advertising

Google AdSense

Jon Scieszka

Dirty car art on Google

Sidewalk chalk art on Google

Nikki Grimes

GoDaddy

WordPress.org (self-hosted, meaning you must own a domain to put it on and pay hosting fees)

WordPress.com (free, but limitations omn what you can do)

Writing Prompts

  • Laura’s 15 Words or Less Poems

Charles Waters

wonder about the world

Example of an online shareable

 

 

 

 

 

Example of a mini-movie made in response to a request

Polly Horvath

Nancy Carlson

Dara Dokas

Micawber’s Books

Watch some Readers Theater on YouTube

Alphabet Forest at the Minnesota State Fair

Vistaprint

Overnightprints

Shrinking Violets blog (no longer active)

PW Children’s Bookshelf (Look for small signup box on this page)

Section 7: Business Skills

Sample school visit contract (and more) from Alexis O’Neill

Quicken accounting software

A snippet of my Quicken records

A snippet of my Quicken records

TurboTax, another accounting program

The Putrid Poetic Ponderings…

Goodreads

Excel

PW Children’s Bookshelf (Look for small signup box on this page)

Publishers Marketplace

SCBWI’s The Book

Google Earth

The Horn Book

Pomodoro

For a More Creative Brain, Take Breaks

Section 8: Tips on…

Association of Authors’ Representatives

PW Children’s Bookshelf (Look for small signup box on this page)

Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)

AgentQuery

Guide to Literary Agents blog

Writer Beware

Editor Emma Dryden

Namelos

Little Buffalo Law (Aimee Bissonette)

Authors Guild

SCBWI

Anastasia Suen

Institute of Children’s Literature

12×12

Susanna Leonard Hill

Highlights Foundation Workshops

NCTE

ILA

ALA

BookExpo America

Kate Hosford

Nerdy Book Awards

Picture Book Marathon is not active at this time

Skype

Authors Who Skype

World Read Aloud Day

Laura’s indie-published books

Lisa Bullard

30 Painless Classroom Poems

Functional resume example

Laura’s author photos

Advanced Google search on “insurance for freelance writers”

Authors Guild insurance options and articles

Appendix A

Read Laura’s “How Much Money Does a Writer Make?” post that corresponds to the business plan in the appendix.

 

Disclosure: Laura Purdie Salas is a participant in the IndieBound Affiliate Program and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase anything off links on this page, she will earn a small commission (about 4%, usually). This does not change your purchase price! Happy writing! Save

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MAY NEWS

All 3 of my 2023 books are out now! Thank you to everyone who's celebrated with me, shared the books, or read/reviewed them. <3

Right now, I'm recovering from National Poetry Month! I'm also working on 2 tricky picture book revisions, and I'm preparing for a bunch of speaking events and storytimes! Join Yvonne Pearson and I for two loon-themed outdoor storytimes on June 6 and August 1. And on July 14, I'll be storying up a storm at Robert Trail Library! Hope to see you there!

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